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Sunday, July 21, 2013

Taste of summer: Lobster mango salad

HALLIE EPHRON: With temperatures soaring here into the 90s day after day, the only thing to do is boil a lobster. How can you not, with prices having come down so far? Here in New England we're seeing them as low as 5.99 a pound. I'm afraid it's the silver lining of global warming.The other day I boiled a 2-pounder, took the meat out of the shell, chilled it, and made a lobster mango salad. It was spectacular. The perfect summer dish.

What makes it work is the bitterness of arugula and the bite of cilantro
and the sweetness of the mango and the lobster. I put the dressing
on the lobster and added the lobster to the rest of the (undressed) ingredients
because you don't want to overwhelm the greens with the taste of the dressing.

Hallie's Lobster and Mango and Arugula SaladServes 2INGREDIENTS FOR THE SALADMeat from a 2-pound boiled lobster, chopped into good sized chunks1 mango (I like the yellow "ataulfo" variety best) peeled and seeded and cut into pieces1/4 cup of coarsely chopped cilantroRomaine lettuceArugulaINGREDIENTS FOR THE DRESSING3 T mango chutney (if there are big chunks of pickled mango in it, chop them up)About 1/4 c rice vinegarAbout 1/3 c olive oilA healthy squeeze of sriracha (hot sauce)Directions:1. Make the dressing: Mix together the ingredients. That's it.2. Toss the lobster with the dressing.3. Assemble the salad - a layer of lettuce and arugula topped with fresh mango and sprinkled with cilantro - top with lobster and dressing.We had al fresco it with some French bread and Vinho Verdi -- a light, crisp, and inexpensive (at least the bottle we had) Portuguese wine with a little sparkle.

That sounds great, Joan -- do you ever salt the cucumbers first? Let them sit for like 20 minutes and then rinse and drain them before making the salad? (I do it to eggplant, too, before frying.) It's not necessary but I like the change in the consistency.

I saw Hallie's recipe on facebook earlier, and used the dressing for cold shredded chicken breast on arugula. It was really popular. We are also in the heat zone, and I had a picture of a cold supper . . . but the cook does end up with a lot of hot work in advance!!

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